Bleader

The Oyster Whisperer walks

Fulton's on the River executive chef and shellfish savant Mark Mavrantonis reports that Saturday was his last day at the gargantuan Levy Restaurants-managed steak and seafood house. Mavrantonis is no diplomat, but in this case he was circumspect on his reasons. "You can say I left for personal reasons and I'll be somewhere else real soon," he told me. "We're definitely gonna serve oysters wherever I go."

When I wrote about Mavrantonis in January he said his dream was to own a little place that served nothing but oysters and martinis. But don't get excited. He's in talks for a new gig but it's nothing like that. (We'll have more soon, hopefully.) At blogtime Levy's hadn't returned my calls about Mavrantonis's replacement or the future of Fulton's shellfish program.

UPDATE: They called back. No replacement yet but "we are committed to continuing our commitment to seafood and steak," blah, blah, blah.